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    <title>ShellCheck: SC2144 – `-e` doesn't work with globs. Use a `for` loop.</title>
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    <h1>SC2144 – ShellCheck Wiki</h1>
    <a href="https://github.com/koalaman/shellcheck/wiki/SC2144">See this page on GitHub</a>
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    <h2 id="-e-doesnt-work-with-globs-use-a-for-loop"><code>-e</code>
doesn't work with globs. Use a <code>for</code> loop.</h2>
<h3 id="problematic-code">Problematic code:</h3>
<div class="sourceCode" id="cb1"><pre class="sourceCode sh"><code class="sourceCode bash"><span id="cb1-1"><a href="SC2144.html#cb1-1" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="cf">if</span> <span class="bu">[</span> <span class="ot">-e</span> dir/<span class="pp">*</span>.mp3 <span class="bu">]</span></span>
<span id="cb1-2"><a href="SC2144.html#cb1-2" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="cf">then</span></span>
<span id="cb1-3"><a href="SC2144.html#cb1-3" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a>  <span class="bu">echo</span> <span class="st">&quot;There are mp3 files.&quot;</span></span>
<span id="cb1-4"><a href="SC2144.html#cb1-4" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="cf">fi</span></span></code></pre></div>
<h3 id="correct-code">Correct code:</h3>
<div class="sourceCode" id="cb2"><pre class="sourceCode sh"><code class="sourceCode bash"><span id="cb2-1"><a href="SC2144.html#cb2-1" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="cf">for</span> file <span class="kw">in</span> dir/<span class="pp">*</span>.mp3</span>
<span id="cb2-2"><a href="SC2144.html#cb2-2" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="cf">do</span></span>
<span id="cb2-3"><a href="SC2144.html#cb2-3" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a>  <span class="cf">if</span> <span class="bu">[</span> <span class="ot">-e</span> <span class="st">&quot;</span><span class="va">$file</span><span class="st">&quot;</span> <span class="bu">]</span></span>
<span id="cb2-4"><a href="SC2144.html#cb2-4" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a>  <span class="cf">then</span></span>
<span id="cb2-5"><a href="SC2144.html#cb2-5" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a>    <span class="bu">echo</span> <span class="st">&quot;There are mp3 files&quot;</span></span>
<span id="cb2-6"><a href="SC2144.html#cb2-6" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a>    <span class="cf">break</span></span>
<span id="cb2-7"><a href="SC2144.html#cb2-7" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a>  <span class="cf">fi</span></span>
<span id="cb2-8"><a href="SC2144.html#cb2-8" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="cf">done</span></span></code></pre></div>
<h3 id="rationale">Rationale:</h3>
<p><code>[ -e file* ]</code> only works if there's 0 or 1 matches. If
there are multiple, it becomes <code>[ -e file1 file2 ]</code>, and the
test fails.</p>
<p><code>[[ -e file* ]]</code> doesn't work at all.</p>
<p>Instead, use a for loop to expand the glob and check each result
individually.</p>
<p>If you are looking for the existence of a directory, do:</p>
<div class="sourceCode" id="cb3"><pre class="sourceCode sh"><code class="sourceCode bash"><span id="cb3-1"><a href="SC2144.html#cb3-1" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="cf">for</span> f <span class="kw">in</span> /path/to/your/files<span class="pp">*</span><span class="kw">;</span> <span class="cf">do</span></span>
<span id="cb3-2"><a href="SC2144.html#cb3-2" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a></span>
<span id="cb3-3"><a href="SC2144.html#cb3-3" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a>    <span class="co">## Check if the glob gets expanded to existing files.</span></span>
<span id="cb3-4"><a href="SC2144.html#cb3-4" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a>    <span class="co">## If not, f here will be exactly the pattern above</span></span>
<span id="cb3-5"><a href="SC2144.html#cb3-5" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a>    <span class="co">## and the exists test will evaluate to false.</span></span>
<span id="cb3-6"><a href="SC2144.html#cb3-6" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a>    <span class="bu">[</span> <span class="ot">-e</span> <span class="st">&quot;</span><span class="va">$f</span><span class="st">&quot;</span> <span class="bu">]</span> <span class="kw">&amp;&amp;</span> <span class="bu">echo</span> <span class="st">&quot;files do exist&quot;</span> <span class="kw">||</span> <span class="bu">echo</span> <span class="st">&quot;files do not exist&quot;</span></span>
<span id="cb3-7"><a href="SC2144.html#cb3-7" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a></span>
<span id="cb3-8"><a href="SC2144.html#cb3-8" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a>    <span class="co">## This is all we needed to know, so we can break after the first iteration</span></span>
<span id="cb3-9"><a href="SC2144.html#cb3-9" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a>    <span class="cf">break</span></span>
<span id="cb3-10"><a href="SC2144.html#cb3-10" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="cf">done</span></span></code></pre></div>
<h3 id="exceptions">Exceptions</h3>
<p>If you are sure there will only ever be exactly 0 or 1 matches -- and
<code>nullglob</code> is not enabled -- then the test happens to
work.</p>
<p>You may still want to consider making this assumption explicit and
failing fast if it's ever violated:</p>
<pre><code>files=( dir/file* )
[ &quot;${#files[@]}&quot; -ge 2 ] &amp;&amp; exit 1
if [ -e &quot;${files[0]}&quot; ]
then 
  echo &quot;The file exists&quot;
else
  echo &quot;No such file&quot;
fi</code></pre>
<h3 id="related-resources">Related resources:</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ/004">BashFaq: How can I
check whether a directory is empty or not? How do I check for any *.mpg
files, or count how many there are?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/a/6364244/2309247">sh - Check if
a file exists with wildcard in shell script - Stack Overflow</a></li>
</ul>
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